Embedded Rich Client Platform Project 1.2 DRAFT Plan

Please send comments about this draft plan to the dsdp-ercp-dev@eclipse.org mailing list.

This document lays out the feature and API set for the next release of Embedded Rich Client Platform Project, to be released , in July 2008, and
usually called "eRCP 1.2", for short.

This document is a draft and is subject to change, we welcome all feedback.

To ensure the planning process is transparent and open to the entire Eclipse community, we post plans
in an embryonic form and revise them throughout the release cycle.

The first part of the plan deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, target operating environments, and release-to-release compatibility. These are all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to change.

The remainder of the plan consists of plan items for the subcomponents under the eRCP project,

The current status of each plan item is noted:

Committed plan item - A committed plan item is one that we have decided to address for the release.

Proposed plan item - A proposed plan item is one that we are considering addressing for the release. Although we are actively investigating it, we are not yet in a position to commit to it, or to say that we won't be able to address it. After due consideration, a proposal will either be committed or deferred.

Deferred plan item - A reasonable proposal that will not make it in to this release for some reason is marked as deferred with a brief note as to why it was deferred. Deferred plan items may resurface as committed plan items at a later point.

Release deliverables

The release deliverables have the same form as previous releases, namely:

Compatibility with previous Releases

eRCP 1.2 will be compatible with eRCP 1.1

API Contract Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards contract-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in those areas that are noted. Programs that use affected APIs and extension points will need to be ported to eRCP 1.2 APIs. Downward contract compatibility is not supported. There is no guarantee that compliance with eRCP 1.2 APIs would ensure compliance with eRCP 1.1 APIs.

Binary Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards binary-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in those areas announced. Downward plug-in compatibility is not supported. Bundles for eRCP 1.2 will not be usable in eRCP 1.1

Source Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards source-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in the areas noted. This means that source files written to use eRCP 1.1 APIs might successfully compile and run against eRCP 1.2 APIs, although this is not guaranteed. Downward source compatibility is not supported. If source files use new eRCP 1.2 APIs, they will not be usable with an earlier version of eRCP.

Major themes

Improve Quality

Focused effort will be made to reduce bug backlog, improving test coverage, performance and performance testing.

Improve Mobile Usability

The usability of eRCP components should be extended further to better accomodate mobile device needs. Here are the requirements

As many of the targeted devices require one handed (non-touch)operation eRCP should ensure that its UI components are fully compatible with such cases.

Better handling of the different screen sizes

Enable better integration with mobile platforms

Mobile platforms provide many features like OSGi runtimes and multimedia APIs. It is our aim to create enablers so that eRCP applications can utilize them.